A Proportionate Response is Madness — If by chance you have the search engine LexisNexis and you punch in the words "Israel'' and "disproportionate,'' you run the risk of blowing up your computer or darkening your entire neighborhood. Just limiting the search to newspapers and magazines …

It's Disproportionate. . . Just my luck. I go away on vacation and it happens to be the week when George W. Bush's strategic view of the current world situation is revealed: Russia big. China big, too. World leaders boring. Lady world leaders need neck rub. Terrorism bad.

Access Denied — What do you do when the people you represent want to be represented by someone else? What do you do when the your highest approval ratings come from members of the party you claim to differentiate yourself from? What do you do when you're down and desperate?

Spazeboy and Me Get Chucked By Holy Joe, Bush-Style — I drove all the way up to Waterbury yesterday excited about the prospect of seeing Bill Clinton speak. Whatever one may think of Bill, his politics and his legacy, his defiance in the face of the right-wing hate machine onslaught are inspirational.

TOO NICE TO WIN? ISRAEL'S DILEMMA — July 25, 2006 — WHAT if liberal democracies have now evolved to a point where they can no longer wage war effectively because they have achieved a level of humanitarian concern for others that dwarfs any really cold-eyed pursuit of their own national interests?

Why People Don't Think Democrats Believe What They Say — The habit of the Democratic Party to kill itself via self-referential meta-talk was on full display at the DLC meeting yesterday. Tell me if you can find what is wrong with the message coming out of the conference. From the Mercury News:

50 percent of U.S. says Iraq had WMDs — Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 — up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds. Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" …

Short Summary of Leopold Story — A more concise summary of what my story is about is in order, so read on! — A DailyKos diarist by the name of AnonymousArmy wrote a post on Leopold calling him a liar on June 12th and said that his "Sealed vs. Sealed" story was an invention of Wayne Madsen

Top Iraqi's White House Visit Shows Gaps With U.S. — Iraqis buried their dead Monday from another suicide bombing. Prime Minister Maliki has tried without success to end such violence. — BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 24 — When Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki visits the White House on Tuesday …

From Planning to Warfare to Occupation, How Iraq Went Wrong — The title of this devastating new book about the American war in Iraq says it all: "Fiasco." That is the judgment that Thomas E. Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, passes on the Bush administration's decision …

Stand up to US, voters tell Blair — 63% say PM has tied Britain too close to White House — Britain should take a much more robust and independent approach to the United States, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today, which finds strong public opposition to Tony Blair's close working relationship with President Bush.

50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill — #1 Michelle Persaud, 27 — Staff counsel — Michelle Persaud's delicate features burst into a smile as she describes the mistake many men make with her. — Seeing her dark eyes and mocha skin, her flowing black tresses and expansive lashes …

Two Views of the Same News Find Opposite Biases — You could be forgiven for thinking the television images in the experiment were from 2006. They were really from 1982: Israeli forces were clashing with Arab militants in Lebanon. The world was watching, charges were flying, and the air was thick with grievance, hurt and outrage.

Greenwald's sock puppets: The worst blog scandal ever? — I have friends involved in this so let me choose my words carefully. I'm not saying it wasn't worth doing. I'm not saying it's a bad thing; as with pizza, there's no such thing as a "bad" blog scandal. Alls I'm saying is, how does it compare?

Raise Wages, Not Walls — THERE are two approaches to illegal immigration currently being debated in Congress. One, supported by the House, emphasizes border control and law enforcement, including a wall along the Mexican border and increased border patrols.

Hezbollah Says Israeli Response a Surprise — A senior Hezbollah official said Tuesday the guerrilla group did not expect Israel to react so strongly to its capture of two Israeli soldiers. — Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of Hezbollah's political arm, also told The Associated Press …

Specter Prepping Bill to Sue Bush — WASHINGTON (AP) - A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush's signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.

WAKING NIGHTMARES: — A week ago, I entertained a nightmare scenario whereby Moqtada Sadr sends his Mahdi Army militia to fight alongside Hezbollah. The nightmare would be Israel attacking Sadr in retaliation for his attacks on the IDF or Israeli civilians, thereby prompting the inevitable …

Nice Rats, Nasty Rats: Maybe It's All in the Genes — On an animal-breeding farm in Siberia are cages housing two colonies of rats. In one colony, the rats have been bred for tameness in the hope of mimicking the mysterious process by which Neolithic farmers first domesticated an animal still kept today.

How the UN legitimizes terrorists — If anyone wonders why the UN has rendered itself worse than irrelevant in the Arab-Israeli conflict, all he or she need do is read UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's July 20 statement. Annan goes to great pains to suggest equal fault and moral equivalence between …

The day's must-read political news and opinion pieces
are scattered across hundreds of news outlets and blogs,
too many for any one person to read.

Fortunately, memeorandum arranges all of these links in a single, easy-to-scan page. It auto-generates a news summary every 5 minutes, drawing on experts and pundits, insiders and outsiders, media professionals and amateur bloggers.